Hounds of Hell
by Sinny of Yellowboze
Summary: A young HUnewearl discovers that her nightmare is not over... Rated PG for violence and cursing in later chapters.
1. Beginnings

AUTHOR'S NOTES:  
  
This is NOT meant to be 100% canon. I've never played Episode II, I've never played any of the online or downloadable quests, this is just something I'm writing for my HUnewearl, my HUmar, and Ash. So there.  
  
This was originally in first person, but I lost it for a few months, during which time I experimented and discovered that first person is really not my style. It was supposed to be a story about Jackie, the HUnewearl I was running at the time, but she got retired yonkers ago. Instead it's about Noel (yes she's a girl) and includes Mazouku (called that for a reason).  
  
This takes place about a week after beating the living jebeeziz out of Kireek. And believe me, that's no overstatement. Dark Falz is still there, nasty boy that he is.  
  
***  
  
"Hounds of Hell" Part 1.  
  
"Here's your meseta!" the Guild Girl said happily, handing Noel a 1,000 meseta piece. She then returned to her conversation with the Quest Display technician. Noel wrinkled her nose with disgust, and left.  
  
The money wasn't coming in as quickly nowadays. Ever since she had broken the seal on the Ruins, the people of the Pioneer 2 had started to realize that there was something truly terrible on Ragol, and the quests had all but dried up. If not for Doctor Montague's weapon development project and the Council, she'd have been completely out of work.  
  
Luckily, Noel had the kind of personality which predicted this kind of situation, and had almost one million meseta set aside in the Cloak Room, and enough weapons of varying strengths that she'd always be able to trade with the younger hunters. Noel's defining characteristics, according to her friend Mazouku, were her ability to plan ahead, and her calmness in combat.  
  
She sighed. Mazouku had vanished a few days ago. She knew that he'd be back eventually, but in the meantime her life would be boring. Noel admitted that her entire life would have been one big yawn if not for Mazouku's insistence that she join the Hunter's Guild.  
  
Noel could be called pretty, if you looked at her in the right way. She had jaw-length bronze hair, large green eyes and a slender body. She dressed in the brown variation of the HUnewearl armour, and wore a large grey greatcoat when off-duty - the HUnewearl armour was cold!  
  
She made her way along the Promenade, aiming to deposit half of the Meseta into her Check Room, saving the rest to buy food for the next few days. Her sensible thoughts were shattered by a scream, coming from the Check Room.  
  
Her instincts took over, and she charged through the hoards of suddenly frozen shoppers, elbowing aside those who wouldn't move. She moved quickly, as her Newman genetics had been designed to, and it wasn't long before she could see the cause of the trouble.  
  
"Good grief," she said, looking at the carnage which surrounded the Check Room. Several people were lying there, most of them dead beyond any hopes of revival. The Check Room Girl was groaning, the wound in her chest not immediately fatal, although it would be if it was left untreated any longer.  
  
"?????," she said, the powerful - Level 12 - healing spell rapidly closing the wound and stabilizing the woman's vitals. She'd lost a lot of blood, but now she had a good chance of pulling through. "What happened?"  
  
"It was. an android." the woman gasped, obviously not realizing that she'd been healed. It happened sometimes. "Big, black. literally tore them apart."  
  
Noel paled. To do something like that, the android would have had a serious program corruption. Unless they were like Kireek. she shook her head. That was a memory she didn't want to visit. The Black Hound was dead, and she and Ash were still alive. Lucky for the young HUmar.  
  
"Call the police!" she told one of the onlookers, who didn't move. "For god's sake, just go!"  
  
She left the woman with a Guild Nurse, who had obviously heard the screams, and slowly entered the Check Room, her Cross Scar at the ready. The lights had all been smashed, leaving the place in darkness. However, her Newman ears would compensate for that.  
  
There was a faint whirring of metal joints, and Noel pivoted just in time to block the swing, which would have decapitated her otherwise. She managed to lock whatever weapon the android was using, and hold him - or her, or even it - away from her throat. Their strength was overpowering her, however, and she knew that unless she was incredibly lucky, chances were that she would die here.  
  
"So sweet," a discordant voice-synthesizer growled, and she had to fight the instinct to shudder. "So sweet and strong!"  
  
"Get away from me!" she yelled, wondering if she'd have time to cast a RaZonde in here. Probably not.  
  
"Don't you want to play?" the android mocked, suddenly pushing much harder. Noel's knees began to buckle, and she silently started to make peace with her maker.  
  
"Hold it!" someone yelled, and the pressure let up. Noel tumbled backwards, towards the door. She wanted away from that android. "We have you completely surrounded!"  
  
So, that onlooker had gathered the wits to call the police. Just in time, too. Torches flashed into the darkness, blindingly bright. The android hissed, and before the torches could pinpoint it, it had leapt away into the darkness. Metal shrieked, and Noel guessed (correctly, too) that it had made an escape through the air ducts.  
  
Police swarmed the room, presumably to gather any evidence they could find. Their commander helped Noel to her feet.  
  
"Are you alright, miss?" he asked, and she nodded. "Lucky escape, it seems. It looks like some 'droid has an error in its matrix."  
  
"Is the Check Room girl going to make it?" she asked. Those wounds had been terribly severe.  
  
"According to the nurse, she was treated just in time. It's the shock which will keep her out of action, not the injuries." The commander shook his head. "Poor woman, barely even knows what hit her."  
  
"Sir!" One of the policemen had a report. "Only one locker has been broken into, and the air vent has been damaged. We need to find HUnewearl Noel Chandler, and confirm what has been removed."  
  
"You've found her," Noel said, her eyes narrowing. What could possibly be in her locker that an android would kill for?  
  
She searched the contents - which took awhile, because she had a lot of weapons for when money was tight - and only one item was missing.  
  
"It's a scythe," she told the commander. "Nick-named the 'Soul Eater'. Dark purple, same shade as bruises. I never used it, I have certain issues with the man who gave it to me, if you follow."  
  
Something was slowly dawning upon her. Insane android, Soul Eater, it had even sounded the same as Kireek. Oh, no, it couldn't be! But it couldn't be anyone else, either.  
  
"I need to go," she said, and she could tell that she even looked scared. The commander's face told her that.  
  
She ran from the Check Room, heading towards the Hunter's Guild. She needed to find the only other person to survive Kireek's rather cruel intentions.  
  
***  
  
So, what do you think? Please R&R, and even if you don't there'll be more chapters up in the very near future, possibly even today. I love it when I get inspired.  
  
For those who care: This new android sounds an awful lot like Cyril from Star Ocean: The Second Story. He is by far the most creepy person ever, so who better to base a facet of evil upon? LOL.  
  
Love, hugs, and weapons of ultimate destruction for all!  
  
Sinny 


	2. Theory

AUTHOR'S TEENY LITTLE RANT:  
  
Well, phooey. Sorry about the ???? thing in the last chapter. It was meant to be Resta, in the Symbols font, but obviously it hates me. From now on you'll just get the names when spell-casting. Sigh.  
  
Not got much else to say but that. Enjoy.  
  
***  
  
"Hounds of Hell" part 2.  
  
"Come ooooooooooooooooooon!" Noel yelled at the empty Guild Girl booth. Of all the bad times to go AWOL, this had to be the worst. "Someone please come ihelp/i me! This could be life or death for a Hunter!"  
  
"Fine, fine," the Guild Girl said. "I'm coming." She emerged from the Quest Display booth, looking disgruntled. "Hey, you were on the news just now. What happened?"  
  
"No time to explain," Noel said. "Look, I need to get in contact with Ash, I worked with him on the From The Depths Quest. Someone's after me, might be coming after him."  
  
The Guild Girl frowned, but the 'live' display of Noel's emergence from the devastated Check Room convinced her that there might be something to what the young woman was saying. "Hang on, it's just bringing up his details. Ah, here. That's his number, there's his address. Want them sent directly to your BEE?"  
  
"Yes please," Noel said, just glad that finally something was happening. "Look, try call him, I'll go straight to his apartment. Just tell him that Noel says to keep inside and not let in anyone but me. If he asks why just tell say Kireek. He'll understand."  
  
Noel ran out of the Guild, heading straight for the nearest intra-ship teleporter. The Guild Girl just looked at her strangely, then tried to contact Ash. When she didn't get a response, she just shrugged and resumed her conversation.  
  
***  
  
Noel made he way through the huge ship, using teleporters where she could, and running where she couldn't. Her greatcoat billowed behind her - she had pulled it on during a rather frustrating wait for a teleporter in the Bluefull sector. Redria sector was about as far away from the main Hunter's Guild as the section IDs got. Yellowboze, Noel's own ID, was only a sector closer.  
  
She was starting to falter, but every time she thought she surely had to stop, she would just picture what might happen if that android got there first, and increased her speed. She'd regret it later, but right now the important thing was to warn Ash. The Guild Girl hadn't called to confirm the message yet, and Noel suspected that she might not have even bothered to call.  
  
Finally she found the right building. The ship was a maze to some, and the Hunter's Guild accommodation was some of the worst. There were simply so many Hunters that the buildings had to be close together, and very tall into the bargain. She swept inside, flashed her Hunter ID to the doorman, and punched the right button in the lift. Finding the right apartment was going to be a nightmare.  
  
She breathed deeply, quietly mourning the fact that Ash's apartment was near the top of the building. The lifts had never been slow, and apparently Redria was a fairly social group because it seemed like someone joined her or left her every floor. She was starting to get seriously jumpy by the time she reached the right place.  
  
She pushed her way past the group of Redrias in the lift, and looked at the nearest door. "You have got to be kidding me!" she groaned, noting that the number was about as far from the right one as it could get on one floor.  
  
She started running again, and silently prayed that she wasn't too late. It was impossible to get anywhere quickly on the Pioneer 2, no matter how hard you tried. There was always someone or something trying to slow you down, even if they didn't know it.  
  
She finally found the right apartment, and stabbed the alert button. Honestly, why couldn't the designers just call them doorbells like the rest of mankind? Irritated at the lack of response, she jabbed it three times in rapid succession. She was just considering how productive it would be to break the damned thing down when the door swished open.  
  
If the situation had been less serious Noel might have done something she'd regret. It was Ash, yes, but DAMN! He was only wearing trousers, revealing a very nice view of his chest and flat-as-a-board stomach, and his hair was bordering on soaking. Had she gotten him out of the shower?  
  
"What d'you want? Oh, it's you Noel." He seemed distinctly unruffled, so Noel knew that the Guild Girl hadn't gotten through. Maybe for the best. "Is something wrong? You look a little distressed."  
  
"Um. Hi. Can I come in?" Just how the hell was she going to explain this?  
  
"Sure." He ushered her in, and she made every effort not to stare. She couldn't help it, Newmen had hormones just like everyone else and hers were working overtime.  
  
"Ash, we are in big trouble," she said, as soon as the door closed. "Some psycho android just killed seven civilians, almost killed the Check Room girl, and stole the Soul Eater from my locker."  
  
"Oh shit."  
  
***  
  
Oh yes, Ash and Noel are in big trouble. I had someone asking my why I called my character Noel Chandler, so here you go.  
  
Noel Chandler is a character from Star Ocean: The Second Story. He likes animals, is fairly calm and well-organised, and generally my favourite character ever. I made up my HUnewearl to look kind of like him - no easy task! - and named her Noel.  
  
There.  
  
Next chapter, I promise that I'll introduce Mazouku. 


End file.
